Hannah Foxley, a two-time breast-cancer survivor has posed naked for Cosmopolitan magazine in a bid to inspire other women.
Hannah Foxley, who recently had a mastectomy, says she wants to show women you can still be beautiful even when you’ve had parts of your body removed.
The 35-year-old said her world turned upside down when she found a lump in her breast in April 2011.
Hannah Foxley, who recently had a mastectomy, has posed naked on the cover of Cosmopolitan to inspire other women
‘I was grieving for my father, Bill, who’d died five months earlier, when I found a lump in my breast and was diagnosed with cancer.
‘It was like being hit by a train. It didn’t feel real. Like most young women, I thought I was invincible,’ she told the fashion magazine.
She had a lumpectomy and eight cycles of gruelling chemotherapy. Then, a week before her treatment was due to end, she found a second cancerous lump.
She had a mastectomy, followed by five weeks of radiotherapy.
Speaking to MailOnline, she said: ‘It was difficult. Losing something that is so key to your femininity takes a lot of coming to terms with.’
Hannah has been photographed immediately post mastectomy, left, and coming to terms with it, right
These images aim to capture the loneliness of cancer treatment, left, and being told the cancer had come back, right
Hannah can be seen being comforted by her mother as she comes to term with, what she describes as, ‘losing a key part of her femininity’
This image, titled ‘looking grey and very ill and fed up of being pumped full of drugs’, captures Hannah during her chemo
Hannah, who found the first lump nearly two years ago, says this picture captures the stress and headache of the whole process
‘Beauty beyond scars’ shows the scars of the first lot of operations. This image was used on a PhD thesis on breast cancer, left, and, right, shows the scars of losing her breast
Hannah, who is still being monitored and is on a waiting list for a reconstruction, says she is proud of what her body has been through
While the treatment was successful, she is still being monitored and is on a waiting list for a reconstruction, which could see her waiting up to twelve months for.
Originally she didn’t want to consider reconstruction but as time passed, she missed wearing sexy underwear and backless dresses so decided to speak to a plastic surgeon about it.
Speaking after the operation, she said: ‘I was worried about how my body would look and how men would react. But I also realised I still had a fit, healthy body. The only thing that had changed was the clothes I could wear.’
Hannah recorded her cancer journey with her friend and photographer Justin Paget. They have won a major international award for their raw and emotional portrayal of her journey through treatment and eventual mastectomy – this shows the beginning of her journey
Ten days after her treatment, she left her job as an employed financial planner and set up The Women’s Wealth Expert, which is a fee based financial planning form that specialises in working with high net worth divorcing women, as well as signing up as an ambassador for Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
Hannah, who has a passion for working out in the gym and weight training, said: ‘It’s still a shock every time I look in the mirror and see a breast missing, but I’m proud of my body and what it’s been through – it’s been poisoned, hacked and microwaved, and it’s still looking great.
‘I have learnt to love it and adopt a positive body image and I want to empower other women to do the same. I want them to see my pictures and say “she looks beautiful and I can too.”‘
Hannah, who features in the March issue of Cosmopolitan, said her body is still looking great and she is now an ambassador for Breakthrough Breast Cancer
Hannah appears in the March issue of Cosmopolitan, on sale 30th January. Available on Apple newsstand. Watch Hannah and hear her body-confidence tips at Cosmopolitan.co.uk/amazing bodies
